DVD: How to Seduce a Virgin / Plaisir à trois (1974)
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Film: Very Good / DVD Transfer: Excellent/ DVD Extras: Very Good
Label: Mondo Macabro/ Region: 1 (NTSC) / Released: October 8, 2013
Genre: Erotica / Drama
Synopsis: After her recent release from a deep psychiatric care, a Libertine-styled countess goes back to ver evil ways, trainer her sights on a pretty girl with the intention to destroy her after fully corrupting her body and soul.
Special Features: Interview with writer co-Alain Petit / Introduction by critic Stephen Thrower / Production notes / Mondo Macabro previews
Review:
Considered by Franco connoisseurs as a companion piece to the human hunting tale Countess Perverse, How to Seduce a Virgin (aka Plaisir à trois) is one of eleven films Jess Franco directed (under the nom de plume Clifford Brown) in 1974.
Using the same cast as Countess, this slick, luridly coloured film has a heavy emphasis on softcore behaviour, yet the story does feature a cruelly ironic finale. With horror implied through evil scheming, manipulation, and humiliating activities, former porn actress Alice Arno plays Martine Bressac, an imbalanced libertine freshly released from the booby hatch after Bobbitizing a lover. Back home with her loudly clothed husband Charles (in one scene, Robert Woods is decked out in a purple leisure suit and yellow dress shirt), Martine trolls the beach in search of new a waif deserving a place in her “museum” – a basement filled with the preserved cadavers of victims frozen in moments of sheer erotic terror!
The very touchy-feely couple soon plot to lure the 21 year old daughter of a diplomat, Cecile (model / porn thespian Tania Busselier), into a routine of debauchery before she too is preserved as one of Martine’s objects d’art erotiques.
Assuredly directed and sporting elaborate masturbation montages steeped in Sadean voyeuristic pleasure (not to mention beaver fur that would make Tinto Brass explode with delight), Seduce is also grounded by an unusually literate script, clean plotting, and a trippy lounge score that perfectly matches the marble mirror panels and pastel shades which decorate the couple’s amazing country mansion.
With garters and a blouse kept in place with garden twine, Franco’s future muse Lina Romay plays the Libertines’ dopey sex slave, communicating through loopy tonal eruptions; and smallish Alfred Baillou is the couple’s gardener who’s emotionally blunted by the memory of a suicidal bishop and his ‘cracked egg’ landing.
Mondo Macabro’s DVD sports a lovely transfer of a near-pristine print source, plus informative interviews with critic / Franco biographer Stephen Thrower and co-screenwriter Alain Petit. A great release that’s mandatory for Franco and Eurosleaze fans.
© 2013; revised 2014 Mark R. Hasan
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